What is going on with kbin - a week has passed with no sign of any life (kbin.melroy.org)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by TheVillageGuy@kbin.melroy.org to c/fediverse@lemmy.world

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I know some of you consider this as documented whining. I hear you but won't stop sharing my opinion and reminding. I recommend continuing commenting on the original post to keep it a bit organized (this post is a link to it)

Update: this thread has gotten out of hand. This is not what I intended, this is not what anybody should want. Let's leave it at this, for now.

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[-] melroy@kbin.melroy.org 0 points 10 months ago

This is exactly the reason I forked kbin in the past, the fork is community-focused called Mbin.

[-] Joker@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 10 months ago

Dude, just build a better product and let it speak for itself. Or maybe try contributing to kbin. It’s not cool to always be harping on the guy for his development pace and trying to pull people over to your fork. Like, we’re supposed to hop over there because you’ve made more commits this week? How do we know your project would be any better off if it ever blows up the way kbin did?

That kbin dude got tens of thousands of subscribers overnight and then put on blast with bug reports and feature requests. He’s done a good job running the site too. He’s got a pretty good track record as far as I’m concerned. He hasn’t asked for shit in return except a little space to maintain his sanity.

[-] TheVillageGuy@kbin.melroy.org 0 points 10 months ago

Your sympathy for Ernest is good, we all sympathise with him. My main point is and has always been that kbin.social should not be run by one person alone, especially if he's having a hard time in his daily life.

[-] Joker@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 10 months ago

So help him out instead of trying to steal the project out from under him. I see there are other contributors in the kbin repository. This fork comes off as really sleazy.

Ernest put in the work and established a community. Now somebody comes along and tries to move that community over to a fork. That’s some bullshit. Zero creativity with the name too. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this group tries to monetize this thing if they manage to replace kbin. Community-focused my ass. If it was community-focused, you wouldn’t be on here trying to split the community.

[-] melroy@kbin.melroy.org 3 points 10 months ago

It's a long story.. I did help Ernest / Kbin for quite a while actually. Feel free to contribute to kbin.

[-] TheVillageGuy@kbin.melroy.org 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I have offered him my help, several times, when he finally responded he explained he's bad at excepting help. That's fine, but that's one of the things which, as I've said in this thread before, makes him unsuitable for running kbin.social by himself

[-] OpenStars@startrek.website 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Your language... sends odd signals to people. e.g., Kbin.social is running on his own computer, which he bought, with his own money, yes? Maybe he asks for voluntary contributions to defray electricity and ISP costs. The Kbin software is separate from the Kbin.social server that runs it, you see what I mean? Why try to take his own computer away from him? Just build something better and people will flock to it instead. Heck, some people have abandoned the Fediverse entirely bc they could not figure it out, and went back to Reddit. To each their own.

Btw many of us see what is going on - have no fear about that. I personally left Kbin three weeks ago when it was down for just days and days at a time, after a similar incident a few weeks before that, and similar issues ever since the project began. But it was always free for me, I don't believe I have any "ownership" of either the server or the project. And I made my choice for me, but if others want to stay, that's also fine. You are trying to make sure that we know that Mbin exists? We know. Make it better and we might try it out. Give up on Kbin and step out ahead of it, if you want. If you are frustrated by the need to wonder and guess at how he will do things in the future, then bypass him entirely, if you can. He seems to want that too.

Btw check out this announcement. There are many great options, and it is wonderful to have choices, e.g. in how communicative the admins are at the server of your choice. Or any of us at any time can start our own - the sheer beauty of the Fediverse!:-)

[-] TheVillageGuy@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 10 months ago

Paid for, in part, by the nlnet foundation. So not just his own money, now that you mention it. But that's not what bothers me neither am I trying to take his computer away. What I have asked him to do, several times, and I am not the only one, is to make sure that should something go bad in his life again other people can take over for him (temporarily)

[-] OpenStars@startrek.website 1 points 10 months ago

That does sound reasonable, and I thought he gave in awhile ago i.e. at least added admins to the instance, which retains him as the sole "owner" but allows others to step in for the more day-to-day work, as you said. But at the end of the day, what he does is up to him.

And what you choose to do about it is on you - e.g. if you want to write to the nlnet foundation asking them to communicate with him and possibly withhold further funding unless certain conditions are met, that is your business.

My own business was to communicate what I did, and now it is up to you to listen to the advice offered, or not. That is the essence of freedom, so please feel free to not have to worry about something outside of your control - his actions - by focusing on what you alone can do, your own actions.:-)

[-] TheVillageGuy@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I assume nlnet are capable of looking after their own business, it's none of mine anyway. And from what Ernest has written in the past I suspect that he's lost the grant.

He has made several promises, several times but never stuck to his words. He's repeating his actions again, although it's not as apparent this time as before, because there's less people involved.

Admins is not enough, there have to be people he trusts, with full access to the server, to make sure the community can be preserved

[-] OpenStars@startrek.website 2 points 10 months ago

That's why I left. And you too. The difference is, I give it precisely zero thought on a daily basis. Don't let him run your life even after you've gotten away from it. Forgive him even, if you can - not for his sake, but for yours - is what I guess I am trying to say. Also, the community has already somewhat shattered, as people are leaving it? Except I did not delete my account, I simply stopped using it (well, I did make one comment in all that time since), which illustrates how any metric based on user count may not measure the situation accurately (and ofc daily posts can always be complicated by bot accounts).

You could contribute to Lemmy perhaps, e.g. try to help get it to federate with Mastodon instances... or something. And as you said, you already are contributing to Mbin. Those kinds of positive changes (i.e., in the sense of moving forward, rather than looking back) are all that you can do, in the end.

Well, that's my two cents, fwiw:-).

[-] density@kbin.social 3 points 10 months ago

@melroy Dude, you need to reign in your street team. This post and all the others like it are harassment done on behalf of you and your project. And you are here posting in support, condoning it.

Tracking a person's online activity is fucked up stalker behavior. It doesn't matter what role they play in what project. It is harassment and obviously intended to menace. No matter what OP says, everyone can see this is the case. Look at the comments on the page. Do you see comments like this about any other open source project?

It's really likely this will escalate. Nothing good is going to come of this. Kbin won't be developed any faster. Mbin's reputation will deteriorate, attract fewer users/contributors than it otherwise might have and specifically repel friendly helpful people who don't appreciate this kind of thing. Your instances may be de-federated for failing to stop harassment. OP will sink further and further into whatever miserable spiral they are in. You personally will be associated with all of it because as a community leader you come here to encourage OP in this unhinged behavior. Find a way to redirect this energy into something that is useful for your project, or disassociate from it.

[-] TheVillageGuy@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I was reminded of the situation by a notification of this comment on my post. I realized it was a week ago and out of curiosity checked Ernest's dev blog and the codeberg repo to see if any progress had been made. That is not tracking, that is not stalking, that is not harassment.

You said before you were not involved. Well, now you are. This thread has now been escalated from defamation to false accusations against me, by you.

For real, stop trying to silence me, @melroy and others by pretending I'm committing crimes, and by trying to install fear of further escalation.

Stop trying to blame me for this situation.

[-] Poggervania@kbin.social 3 points 10 months ago

Wow, I didn’t realize making more commits and changes means something is better.

I mean, if something is working and it’s working decently well… does it need a nightly change or frequent updates? It not being updated as often as it normally does is not a bad sign imo.